


a celebration of an ending

by lionsenpai



Category: Drag-On Dragoon | Drakengard
Genre: Gen, Vampire AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 17:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5594212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionsenpai/pseuds/lionsenpai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the storm of the century - the perfect night for an accident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a celebration of an ending

**Author's Note:**

> a much belated gift for glyphenthusiast over on tumblr!
> 
> please read   
> [this](http://lionsenpai.tumblr.com/post/131658179803/a-tight-ship)  
> before going any further!!!

Thunder clapped outside the sleek black SUV, spiderweb streaks of purple lightning fracturing the night sky like glass, casting the world in stark contrast before suffocating it with darkness once more.

In this split second of illumination, the river came into view, growing fat and turbulent on the unending rain. Swelling like a great beast, it lapped at the shore, threatening the levies, and swirled around the bridge’s support beams, hungry, ravenous. A few more hours of this and it would swallow the bridge whole, grow to consume the elevated road the car was parked alongside, and drown it all in churning black water.

It was the storm of the century - the perfect night for an accident.

Four waited within the idling SUV, tugging at her clothes, adjusting her hair, glancing out into the pitch darkness even her keen sight couldn’t penetrate. Her bed-bitten nails drummed along the leather interior, and every few moments, her eyes flickered to the clock on her phone, counting the minutes since the other car had disappeared down the embankment towards the river.  

What was taking so long?  
  
For the fourth time, she considered stepping from the car herself, running down to the river and sussing out the verdict . She’d find the bodies, confirm that no one had survived, and then finally, _finally_ , she would be done with _her_.

A shape moved in the darkness, lumbering, graceless, and Four sharpened, her fangs pricking at her lower lip. For half a second, she thought she saw the glint of gold, some absurd terror racing up her spine, caught-out and condemned beneath the executioner’s stare.

But there were no dark eyes, heavy with the weight of the axe. Only Decadus appeared at the window, and Four growled beneath her breath, cursing herself for seeing phantoms, for fearing apparitions.

When she rolled down the window, Decadus bowed his head, unable to meet her eyes. His shoulders hugged his neck, hunched and broken, but he dutifully held an umbrella over the window, shielding her from the rain. His own clothes were soaked through, mud up to his thighs.

“ _Well_?” she demanded.

“The driver is in the car, Miss Four - ”

She reached through the window, grasping him by the collar with unforgiving claws. “I don’t _care_ about the driver! What about her? What about _Gabriella_?”

Decadus gave a small whimper, undertones of pleasures in the pleading. “Miss Gabriella - Miss Gabriella wasn’t in the car. She’s still - ”

“Still _alive_?”

He nodded, his cheeks dusted with pink, and began babbling about his punishment, how he’d accept anything she intended, but Four only snarled, pushing him away with terrible strength. Decadus dropped the umbrella as he tumbled to the ground, begging forgiveness even as he scrambled to pick it up, to guard her against the rain. Before he could, Four was already out the door, the rain freezing against her flesh, trailing icy fingers beneath her collar and down her back.

That idiot! She snapped her teeth together, hurrying past the spikes strips laid twenty meters before the bridge. The ground was soft and muddy, and the swerving tire treads from Gabriella’s car lead her down the bank towards the river. Levies had been laid at the water’s edge in preparation for the storm, but Decadus had hefted and huffed for hours to clear the area, leaving the bank open, unobstructed.

The car should have rolled right in, sunk beneath the black water and drowned everyone within, but Four could see a good quarter of the car still unsubmerged.

A red tail light caught in the flash of the next lightning strike. If left be, the unforgiving current would suck the car away completely, never to be seen again. The only catch: the back door was open.

Decadus appeared at Four’s side, offering the umbrella despite how the rain was already soaking through her heavy coat. “Miss Four, please allow me to - ”

“Is this how you found it?”

He pursed his lips, bowing his head in shame. “Yes, just like this.”

“Damn it…” Four chewed at her thumbnail, biting too deep. Blood welled up at the edge of her nail. “If she gets away, she’ll tell One _everything_!”

Four could see it already, hear the lies, each one dripping from her stupid mouth like black ichor, clumpy and false. And One - One _always_ listened to Gabriella! A word from Gabriella was worth all the things Four had ever said to her, and if news got back that Four had been responsible for this...

“Go watch the road!” Four snapped, inhaling deeply. There was no scent to be had with the storm raging, but Four’s sight was still better than most. She scanned the shore, sharpening like a bloodhound at the stumbling tracks in the soft mud.

She left without another word, trusting Decadus to do something right for once. He was a useless tracker, and she moved faster without him anyway.

The footprints followed the bank before veering into the woods, and Four couldn’t help but scowl, reminded all at once just who she was chasing. Alone, without One’s protection, Gabriella was weak. She had survived in a world of vampires for so long because One had pitied her, had _felt sorry_ for her. She dragged One down and kept her from the people who truly cared about One, kept her from _Four_.

It grated, knowing she was always there, always ruining things between them. If it weren’t for Gabriella… If it weren’t for Gabriella, Four would be the person protecting One, keeping her safe and acting as her confidante.

She exhaled sharply, entering the treeline and feeling the wind and rain dull beneath the heavy canopy of leaves above them. The trees creaked and groaned with each galewind, but Four could hunt better here, could listen for the crunch of wet leaves beneath Louis Vuittons.

If she listened hard enough, she could almost hear screams, her own voice echoing through woods as if she were the one being hunted. Visions of the past clouded her mind, and she snarled, blinking hard to try to dispel them. The hairs at the back of her neck stood at attention, her hands curling into fists, but she refused to look back over her shoulder, refused to let her mind fool her now.

Four had no pulse to speak of, but her muscles tensed as she moved between the thick trunks, every sense pricked and attentive. The tracks were harder to follow here, but Four hadn’t lost her yet, her fangs throbbing with the thrill of the hunt.

She could tell Gabriella was slowing down, her strides becoming shorter, swaying between trees and even stopping to rest. How old was she now? Four snapped her teeth together, anxious, and moved quicker.

Weaving over the gnarled roots breaking from the ground, Four finally heard her, the broken gasps for air, the squish of mud beneath her heels. Lifting her eyes from the ground, she moved like a shadow, silent, but even still, when the shape of Gabriella appeared in the darkness, she was straight-backed, eyes cutting right through Four.

Four froze.

Gabriella was all ancient, all age, all skin and bones in a designer suit which clung to every angle, soaked and muddy from the river. Gold adorned her neck, her ears, her wrists and fingers, crusted into her wizened flesh like armor. She’d laughed in One’s face at the offer of immortality, instead letting the years catch and drag and take from her until she they were all she was.

And yet despite the way her face was wrinkled, imperfect, she stared down Four without fear, without surprise. A sneer pulled at her lips, her lipstick smudged, blood trailing down from her forehead and mixing with the rain.

“I had a feeling it was you,” she wheezed, her voice cracking and raw. Thunder crashed above them, and Gabriella appeared in stark color, severe and sharp, her mouth twisted in displeasure - the sort Four had come to dread. “Just how _stupid_ are you? Trying to kill _me_?”

Gabriella never was one for pretenses, but the brusque question still caught Four off guard, her thoughts jack-knifing. Excuses collected at her tongue, her chest puffed out to rebuke Gabriella’s cursory interest, her harsh dismissal. That look was a bastion between Four and One, impenetrable and damning. She ought to have left, ought not to have even come, everything futile, everything lacking.

Except - she remembered with a thick swallow, cursing her mind - this wasn’t Gabriella’s office, and Four wasn’t the one being judged. Not this time, not ever again.

She held herself a little straighter, trying to make herself taller, more intimidating, more sure of herself than she truly felt. Gabriella saw through her, had always seen through her, condemning her attempts with a roll of her eyes.

Mustering a defense, Four snapped, “I would watch my tongue if I were you.”

Gabriella let out a sputter of a laugh, like an engine full of rust trying to start. Instead of answering Four, she reached into her jacket pocket, fishing for something, daring to make Four wait - _again_.

“I _said_ \- ”

“Oh, I heard you, little girl, and I don’t have the patience for the kind of bullshit you’re spouting tonight.” She pulled a part of Parliaments from her breast pocket, a lighter in tow, and set the end of one in her mouth, muttering, “Of all the nights…”

It felt as if nothing she said mattered, as if every word were useless against Gabriella’s great disregard. Impotent, she stood there, waiting as Gabriella flicked at her lighter, cursing it under her breath when it didn’t light. She sneered, tossing it aside, and the sky sundered with light again, thunder cracking a moment later.

When the world quieted save only the constant pelt of rain and the whip of galewinds through the branches, Gabriella said, “Forty years you’ve been thinking this up, and _drowning me_ is the best you could come up with? You so spineless you can’t even get your hands dirty?”

Four ground her teeth, cowed even now, a deep shame rumbling through her.

“It’s a _joke_. Here’s a tip for you the next time you wanna murder someone: look them in the eye when you do it. Maybe then you won’t fuck it up. Drowning… Pah.”

Taking a step forward, Gabriella advanced on Four as though she was the hunter, as though Four was the one cornered and caught, a hare in a trap. With every long stride, Four was sure Gabriella would tear into her with dagger-sharp teeth, flay her alive and leave her in the mud for dead.

And Four couldn’t _die_.

Four could break every bone in her body with barely a thought, could bury her face into her neck and tear, but still - _still_ \- Gabriella rooted her to the spot with nothing but her stare, and the realization set every inch of her aflame.

Heat bloomed between Four’s ribs and crept up into her throat, down to her fists, unnatural in such a cold body. She hated Gabriella in the dark corners of her own mind, the quiet privacy of her home, but never before her. Never where Gabriella could read the fury in her face, her posture, her words.

Now it crackled in her gut, nourished by shame and anger and so many swallowed words, stoked into an inferno.

Tense and taut, she didn’t move, didn’t speak, not even when Gabriella stood before her, curly hair drooping down into her face, lips pinched in utter disgust. “Well?” she demanded. “Were you going to throw me in the river when you finished up, you leech? You’re wasting your time - and mine. Your work is all over this, you little shit. One would find you out in a second, and then what would happen?”

Gabriella leaned in, a cruel tilt to her lips. “You think just because she hasn’t offed you that she hasn’t been planning for the day you slip the leash? It was only a matter of time before you turned rabid… Don’t think we weren’t preparing.”

Four’s lungs burned, her jaw working until every tooth in her mouth ached, but Gabriella only laughed, drawing back.

“The day I die - warm, in bed, with a pack of smokes - it will be knowing that your scrawny ass won’t be a step closer to One. So cut the shit, get back in line, and pray the first thing I do when I get back isn’t tell One about this sorry attempt.”

Four wasn’t worth another moment of her time. Gabriella pushed by her, their shoulders colliding, and without looking back, Gabriella said, “Expect a bill for the shit you - ”

Something clicked into place, the hammer of gun striking the firing pin, sudden ignition and a rush of movement. Distantly, it hummed along her skin as Gabriella went sprawling across the ground, tumbling like a rag doll among the leaves. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky. For decades now she’d waited for this moment, for release, and Four found it in the pained shock in Gabriella’s dark eyes as she scrambled to right herself, clutching her arm.

Her first exhale escaped as a shout, the second a groan, and by the time Four realized she was moving in on the crumpled woman, her thoughts were drowned out by the boom of thunder overhead.

“Oh, you rotten little - ”

“Shut _up_!”

It was razor blades in the back of Four’s throat, the words she’d had to bite back so many times, curbing her tongue until she tasted her own blood, and for who? For Gabriella? For this frail, aging human, so far beneath her she wasn’t worthy to wipe her boots on? Someone like this had One’s ear? Someone like _this_ stole One away from Four with her lies?

Four delivered a vicious kick right to Gabriella’s ribs.

“ _Oh_!” she wheezed, sharp notes of pain catching them both off guard as she pulled her legs in to protect herself.

It spurred Four to pull her foot back again, driving the toe of her boot into Gabriella’s side and legs as she feebly curled in on herself, crying out with each impact.

“I told you! I told you to watch your tongue! You can’t talk to me like that! You’re nothing!”

Four’s shouts rose above even Gabriella’s cries, shrill and furious, everything she’d ever wanted to say to her spilling out like a flood. Her throat ached, raw, but Four only stopped when she heard the crack of bone tearing through the air like the heaven’s thunderclaps.

Every breath she took was a heave, panting and looming over Gabriella like a nightmare brought to life. She’d never seen Gabriella beaten. She’d never seen Gabriella broken.

Now she burned the image into her mind, refusing to see her any other way, to remember the way she’d laughed and mocked, cowing Four with nothing but her eyes and carving up her pride with every word from that foul, smirking mouth.

“Oh… Oh, you,” Gabriella choked, tilting her head back and letting out a sob. “Wretched… Useless… Girl…!”

Four growled and gave her another kick, just for good measure.

Whimpering, Gabriella turned to look up at Four, her cheek covered in mud, tears or rain or both collecting at her eyes. The hairs at the base of Four’s neck prickled to attention, her breath catching as another lightning strike showed Gabriella’s despair in stark color.

She crouched without thinking, touching Gabriella’s face and feeling the cost of age for herself, the lines at the corners of her mouth, the deep bags beneath her eyes. Gabriella flinched, but she didn’t look away, sneering with what had to be the last of her pitiful strength, whole body trembling and shuddering.

Gabriella rolled up her sleeve, needle-marks at the soft skin along the inside of her elbow. “Twenty years ago… You brought me a proposal for cloned blood… Oh, you...”

Four never dropped her gaze as she snapped her neck, her body going limp all at once. The life drained from from her eyes, immediate, like a candle flickering out, and Four laughed.

Looking her right in the eyes… Gabriella had been right. Now she was sure.

*

Four fidgeted with her tie, trying her best to straighten it but getting distracted by her unfortunate curls of long brown hair. Leaving the tie and reaching for her ivory brush, she combed until her head ached from too many pulled strains, her lips pulled into a deep frown.

What was she going to do? She couldn’t show up like this! Decadus had reported even Five - _Five_ \- had managed to wrangle all that hair into a thick, tidy braid, perfect for the occasion. If she couldn’t even do that…

She tossed aside the brush, wringing her hands in front of the mirror, and inspecting herself for errors, tallying them up in her head.

Appropriately in all black, she had tried for a suit instead of a dress, knowing One would do the same, but instead of filling it, Four fitted it awkwardly, looking too small, too hunched, too frazzled. One’s impossibly slim frame seemed cut of steel in a suit, indomitable, but Four just looked silly, a little girl stealing her older sister’s clothes.

Chewing at her lower lip, she gave a sharp exhale, glancing at the clock on the wall before reaching for the brush again.

There was a knock on her door, and Four huffed, calling,  “ _Yes_?”

“Miss Four? The ceremony will begin shortly… We really ought to... ”

With a final look at the mirror, Four rose from her vanity, saying, “Yes, yes, I’m coming!”

Decadus met her at the door with an umbrella, the weather predictions poor for the afternoon, but she blew by him without stopping, taking the stairs down to the condo’s landing and checking the time once more. Even if she couldn’t get her hair to cooperate, she mustn’t be late.

Five weeks after Gabriella had officially gone missing, her badly decomposed body had been found fifty miles downstream, washed up on the banks. It hadn’t taken long for that information to fall into One’s lap; with her oldest confidante missing, not even Four’s visits could distract her from trying to find her, and now that she had… The funeral was set to begin at two sharp, and One had never approved of tardiness, especially not now.

When Decadus finally followed her down the stairs, he opened the door and accompanied her to the idling car outside, the first drops of rain beginning to fall.

The location of the funeral was out of the way, outside of town and away from the bustle. It took half an hour to reach, all of which Four spent adjusting her tie and redoing her cufflinks, trying to appear presentable for such an occasion.

Nestled in a grove of sharp smelling cedars, the funeral home was built entirely of white brick, enclosed by a wrought-iron fence and sprinkled with blooming flower beds. It was entirely too quaint for someone like Gabriella, but it made One happy, so Four would bite her tongue no matter what eulogies were given.

The line of cars outside was easily recognizable, each one waiting for the chance to pull as close to the funeral home’s entrance - two great gates flanked by guards left open in solemn greeting - and hurry inside. Two and her idiot boyfriend were halfway inside when Decadus added them to the queue, and right after the lovebirds, Five appeared, holding her own umbrella and dressed in dark silk. Three was with her, and together, the two of them entered together, Three leaning on Five’s shoulder, her hair unusually well combed.

Of Zero there was no sign - if Four knew her, she would arrive halfway through the ceremony or not at all.

More surprisingly, Four realized One’s car was right in front of them, and she leaned forward in her seat. One was usually the first person to any event, and to arrive after so many others for Gabriella’s funeral? Four pursed her lips, something like hope fluttering between her ribs.

When One finally pulled up to the gates, Four saw no reason to wait. One of the guards at the gate moved to open the car door, and Four pushed open her own, stepping out into the rain without care. No doubt One wouldn’t mind sharing her umbrella, not when Four proved to be so supportive of her, no matter what.

Smiling with a skip in her step, Four hurried towards One’s car - until she was barred by the same man who’d moved to open One’s door. He was joined by another, who looked down at her with narrow eyes and thinned lips which did little to conceal their fangs. 

Four growled. “What are you doing? Get out of the way!”

But they didn’t move, saying something ridiculous about her not being welcome here.

When One’s door opened, Four called out for her, half a second from tearing through the men to get to her, to punish them for their glaring mistake by spilling their blood across the sidewalk and taking her rightful place by One’s side. Yet it wasn’t One who stepped from the vehicle, her pale skin and shockingly white hair nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Four’s breath caught in her throat, frozen in time, her stomach dropping.

From the car, a slim youth with dark skin and dark hair emerged, dressed in the finest designer suit, an umbrella clutched in one hand. It opened with a whoosh of air, but Four couldn’t take her eyes away from the impressive cheekbones, the full lips, the curly hair trimmed close to the scalp.

Their eyes met and rooted Four to the spot, a lurch in her chest like she’d just been struck.

 _Gabriella_.

One stepped from the car next, fitting neatly at the doppelganger's side, her lips moving in some unheard thanks. The fondness in her did not reflect in her attendant’s dark eyes, but she still smiled, touching their shoulder and then noticing their stare, the way their blank eyes lingered on something at her back.

When One turned, the world stopped, and everything else fell away. Four felt her gaze keen as a blade held right to her skin, keenly as the press of fangs that had turned her almost a century ago.

There was no love in that narrow gaze, not even an ounce of warmth.

“Gabriel,” One said, and all of Four prickled, alarm ringing through every bone in her body.

Gabriel - her attendant - tilted their head in her direction, alert.

“We’re already behind schedule. Come.”

Together, in perfect synchronization, the two of them turned their back on Four, her body cold and numb, the only feeling the constant patter of the rain soaking through her suit. In the corners of her mind, she heard the words on Gabriella’s dying lips: _cloned blood._

And then all she heard was Gabriella’s laughter, clear as when she’d still lived.


End file.
